Much has been said about the effects a merger of Comcast and Time Warner Cable would have on current subscribers of one of the two companies' services.

Comcast, which announced this month it’s buying Time Warner for $45.2 billion, has touted the deal as a vehicle for providing faster, more reliable service to more customers and saving money on TV programming costs. If approved by federal regulators, the deal would create a company serving some 30 million cable customers.

But none of those customers are in the Lehigh Valley. And most cable subscribers in Warren County and some in Hunterdon County also don’t have access to Comcast or Time Warner.

That likely won’t change if the merger is approved, industry experts say. RCN and Service Electric Cable TV, the two cable providers that dominate the region, will remain here, but that’s not to say that their customers should expect immunity from any effects of the merger, especially when it comes to what they’re paying for services, according to the experts.

“The impact on non-Comcast and non-Time Warner customers will be real, mainly because of the company’s sheer size nationwide,” said Derek Turner, research director at Free Press, a nonpartisan group that advocates for diverse media ownership. It has launched a campaign opposing the merger.

Turner sees a continuation of cable bills rising in part because of Comcast’s dual ownership of both the distribution of programming and the programming itself. Comcast already owns NBCUniversal and its complement of channels. An even bigger Comcast gives it more leverage to dictate costs to other programming distributors such as RCN and Service Electric, Turner said.

It’s a concern that’s at the forefront for Jack Capparell, Service Electric’s general manager.

Hefty channel costs

The company has been grappling with rising costs because of fees paid to carry programming. The fees are tied to the kind of programming that TV viewers in the Lehigh Valley demand, he said, adding that channels such as Comcast SportsNet, which airs the Philadelphia teams, come with a hefty price tag because they’re often bundled together with less popular channels, he said.

“The more they have, the more they can tie together,” Capparell said of Comcast. “We sit down and negotiate and then we pay them what they want. … It puts us in an awkward position because we have to pass those rates on to our customers.”

Cable subscribers need no more evidence than their bills to see the trend. RCN has also jacked up rates to customers in recent years. Last month, many RCN subscribers in the Lehigh Valley received letters in the mail indicating that they’d be paying more for cable in 2014.

Efforts to reach RCN were unsuccessful. Multiple phone messages left at its local marketing office went unreturned as of Wednesday. But the letter sent to subscribers spells out the same issues Capparell pointed out.

“Programming fees paid to networks and sports channels, plus retransmission fees from local broadcasters comprise the largest cost in our business and are unfortunately growing at four times the rate of inflation,” the RCN letter says.

Capparell noted that Comcast is a good company that provides solid service. That will benefit its and Time Warner’s customers should the merger be approved.

“They have their act together,” Capparell said of Comcast. “That should help their subscribers in the long run.”

But what happens in the long run for customers of Service Electric, RCN and others is less clear, said Turner, of Free Press.

Option cuts feared

He said an approved merger, aside from the implications on cable TV, could also empower satellite TV providers, namely DirecTV and Dish Network, to seek their own consolidation, further reducing consumers’ options in the Lehigh Valley.

“It’s a thread that once you pull, a lot of stuff starts unraveling,” Turner said of the merger. “There are enough reasons for regulators to reject this merger. They’ve just got to pick one and go with it.”

The deal is expected to close by the end of the year, pending approvals by shareholders, the Federal Communications Commission and U.S. Department of Justice.

Comcast’s expected argument before antitrust regulators: Comcast and Time Warner Cable don’t directly compete with each other in any region. Therefore, the deal won’t reduce competition and should be approved.

Comcast CEO Brian Roberts has said the combination will be “pro-consumer and pro-competitive.”